Life on the March

Jonathan W. Buhoup was a sergeant in Captain C.C. Danley’s Pulaski County Company. His rank gave him access to both officers and privates, allowing him to observe all aspects of life in the Arkansas regiment. Buhoup wrote an extensive narrative of what the Arkansas volunteers experienced during the war, providing everything from descriptions of day-to-day life to critical observations of how the officers conducted themselves.

Buhoup described how the civilian teamsters who drove the Army’s wagons carried along casks of water. They would charge soldiers a bit, or 12.5 cents, for a single drink. "As some of our soldiers were not very flush of money,” Buoup commented, “they were compelled to suffer exceedingly." He wrote that at one camp site, the men skimmed a "greasy scum" off the water, but drank it after riding 20 miles.